Wanted: a new lung please

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack. Hack. Hack. Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
These are the sounds echoing through my house and my chest these days. Stupid cold will not surrender and I'm starting to hurt. I'm resisting the urge to drag my butt into the doctor's because I'm fairly certain it's just a viral thing and I don't want to be in a concentrated area with other people sick with worst than I have. So that's my whining. Onto more pleasant things.

Zane is reading up a storm! He is loving reading and just can't get enough. It gives me warm fuzzies all over to see him curled up over a book and figuring out most of the words himself. It also makes me feel a little old.

Rhett is all of a sudden talking so much better and so much all the time! He is still my best whiner - we're working on that - and still has ZERO interest in potty training. I'm running out of ideas. Bribes aren't working. So I thought I'd try the leave-him-in-the-wet-pants-after-an- accident technique. I explained it to him, we stayed dry for a couple of potty rounds and then he peed. Not a lot, but enough to make his pants fairly wet. I told him I'd set the timer for 10 minutes and then we'd change him into dry stuff. Gave him a towel to sit on and went back to what I was doing. 10 minutes were up and he wouldn't come get dry! He stayed in his wet clothes for half an hour and didn't care a bit! GRRRRRRR. Can someone please give me a magic wand? But he continues to make me smile and laugh and melts my heart every day.

And Brock is a going concern. His latest trick is to climb onto of his walker. He likes to play with the toys on it when he's not actually sitting in it. So he crawls over, pulls himself up, and steps both feet up onto the plastic over the wheels. And there he stands oh so pleased with himself. Grinning from ear to ear. Oh my busy busy baby!

And I forgot to blog a couple of weeks ago about the great news that Cliff got. Trail has contracts with different builders in and around the city to supply the appliances for the houses those builders do. Some are bigger contracts than others and all of the sales guys have certain builders under them - so they get commission on the product going into those houses. Trail has been working for almost 2 years to get Laebon Homes to sign with them and they finally did. The great news is that it's become one of Cliff's builders! Laebon is one of the biggest builders up here so it's really a great thing. Congrats hon!

Super Saturday

This is what I did at Super Saturday before going home sick....love the craft and how cute it is but it does panic me a little! I have so much to do before Christmas!

9 months

He's 9 months old now! And got his first "real" haircut with clippers last night. Not sure who cried more - me or him. I wasn't expecting to cry...just started to come when Cliff started cutting. Sigh. I'm such a sap!

Anyways, at 9 months Brock is:

- 20.8 lbs - not a big change from last month

- 28 inches

- army crawling every where!

- pulling himself up on everything

- cruising around furniture

- has 5 teeth

- had his crib lowered last week

- waking up once a night still

- mostly in 12 month clothes

- has discovered how to open cupboard doors and pull stuff out

- forever crawling under things and getting places he shouldn't be

- tries to crawl through things and gets VERY frustrated when that isn't possible

- LOVES his bath time and tries to 'help' get his clothes off so he can get in faster

- finally likes potatoes

- will hold his bottle for a little while but gets distracted and usually ends up with milk everywhere

- loves music and starting to 'dance' when he hears some

- still very curious about Vato - sigh

Oh we love our baby boy!

Time flies

Wow. The last little while has really flown by! Here's what we've been up to:
- still adjusting to the whole pet thing
- all my blood work came back good - so no mono! Yeah!
- crossing fingers for no more strep this season or might have to get tonsils out. Boo!
- Brock is fast! He still army crawls but can move! And he's creeping and pulling himself up on everything and has figured out how to open my cupboard doors and pull stuff out. He keeps me hopping!
- we had a great time at our trunk or treat. Sorry, forgot to take pictures. Zane was Batman, Rhett was Spiderman and I went as a hiker with Brock in a baby back pack that we borrowed from some friends.
- attended Zane's costume parade at school. He was THRILLED to see us.
- Halloween Rhett was hacking up a lung and running a slight fever and Cliff wasn't feeling great and Brock had a runny nose so the boys stayed home with Daddy and I took Brock and went to adult session of stake conference. The sickies snuck in a little trick-or-treating but got rained out about 20 mins after starting
- I sang in the choir for Stake Conference on the Sunday session
- and this last week has been taken up with various members of the family being in various stages of sickness. GROSS! So tired of our house being sick. Hopefully another couple of days and all will be good again.
- and this took me almost a week to finish!

I have Survived....

having a pet for one week. And we're both still here.

Things I like about having a dog:

The walks, the tail wagging when he sees us, my kids playing with him, my kids getting over any fear they had of dogs, petting, loyalty, crazy antics in the backyard when he doesn't know I'm watching

Things I DON'T like about having a dog:
The wet smell, the shedding, the one-more-thing-to-think-about on my daily list, the dog not being crate trained and wanting to sleep on my couch

I have survived.....
another bought of Strep Throat....we think. If my swab tests positive it will be #3 in 6 weeks. Yuck. So my wonderful doc gave me different drugs and a bunch of blood work. He's testing my thyroid, liver, and for mono. Yep, mono. Gross. So hoping that one doesn't come back positive. Drugs are making me feel pretty good but by the end of the day throat is still a little sore. Hot lemonade with honey is my friend.

I have survived.....
Brock starting to crawl. It's army crawling but he's crawling and moving fast. He's pretty determined to get under the table where Vato lives when he's inside and I'm just as determined to keep him out of there.

I have survived.....
multiple years of no sleep and no end in sight to sleepless nights. Sigh.

I have survived. And grown. And learned. And come out smiling....mostly.

Adding to the Family....

No - we're not pregnant. You can start breathing again. We've added a four legged member of the family.....

Introducing Voto (va-toe). He's 10 months old and has been answering to this name for that long so we figured we'd keep it. Zane was pretty keen on naming him Anakin but we convinced him that Voto was a cool enough name. So, here's his story. He's a Rottie-Jack Russel cross and was given to a family's son by his girlfriend and he's not home enough for a dog so he took him out to the farm for mom and the grandparents to look after. But they already had 2 HUGE dogs (as big as Rhett - seriously) and one more was just too much. So they advertised on Kijji, Cliff saw the add, we've been going back and forth for the last couple of days and today we brought him home. He's neutered and has his puppy shots so we don't have that head ache. He's great with other dogs and kids - been exposed lots to little ones. And he comes, sits, learns fast, doesn't bark, isn't hyper, doesn't jump up and loves to chase cats. If I had to describe a perfect dog all of those things would be on the list. He hasn't tried to chew anything, listens to me great and is just so mellow. So far a great addition to our family.

And although some think this choice is completely random and sudden for our family, Cliff and I have always talked about having a dog. I never had a pet at all growing up and Cliff usually did so we come from different perspectives. But there are lots of things that a pet can provide for a family and for kids and we decided that now was a good time. Zane's already pretty confidant around him - Voto sat in the back of the van next to him for the ride home and kept getting closer and closer to Zane. Zane was thrilled "mom, I think he likes me!" And 5 minutes after getting home even Rhett was cautiously patting him on the head. Brock is politely disinterested right now.

So here's to our new adventure!

8 Months!

OK, so he was 8 months a week ago.... Life is busy!

But Brock at 8 months is soooo much fun! Things he's up to:

- loves to stand up against anything

- starting to shuffle along things

- pulled himself up in his crib from sitting

- goes from his tummy to his bum when it suits him

- scoots but doesn't crawl

- loves paper, cords etc - anything that he shouldn't have

- blows raspberries ALL the time!

- loves to give the baby in the mirror kisses

- doesn't make strange

- reaches his arms to go to mom or dad

- thinks that Rhett and Zane are the BEST

- makes a funny clicking sound

- has 3 teeth cut and almost a 4th

- won't hold his own bottle - makes for good cuddles

- still has poof hair

- is a screecher

- usually has 2 good naps a day

- still doesn't like travelling for more than an hour

- is 19.6 lbs and about 28 inches....hard to measure a squirmy little person!

- likes most everything I've given him to eat

- says da da da all the time

- is usually up once or twice a night

- loves baths - especially if he gets one all by himself

- loves to walk all over the place if you hold his hands

- is a happy happy little boy

Reward

This is my new hair....well, old hair but new color and freshened up cut. I hit my 20lb mark last week and decided to reward my self with a non-edible reward. So today I got it foiled and cut. And I'm going to try and repress how much it cost because I LOVE it.

So, 20 down, lots to go!